Friday, August 15, 2008

Don Boudreaux's post on Libertarian Paternalism inspired me to go back and listen to the old EconTalk with Richard Thaler. The back and forth between Thaler and Roberts reveals an interesting behavior I have observed in other instances, which is that the difference in how disgruntled you get with someone you disagree with a lot is not much more than someone you disagree with just a little.

An example of this was an Evangelical Christian friend of mine who found herself dating an Atheist. Eventually this just failed to work out and she broke up with him. However, her next boyfriend was another Evangelical Christian, and by all accounts she liked him more than the Atheist, yet she broke up with him too because of a slight disagreement they had over a non-significant passage in the Bible.

This feud between Libertarians and Libertarian Paternalists reminds me a lot of that example.